I am developing a competency framework for an oil and gas company and will like to find out how many core and functional competencies and proficiency levels should be included in a competency framework?

The question sounds like it's related to a demo that my networking group has scheduled for Monday, January 27 at 10 AM, Pacific Time. The demo is via Kenexa and it will examine their ""competencies"" library. Perhaps that will be helpful for determining a starting point. More information about the demo is in my Bulletins: http://forums.delphiforums.com/entrances/messages/?msg=2965.1

AS most competency literate people will tell you, ""it depends."" Establishing any behavioral competencies (different from skills needed) is a process. Using a library of already established, tested and researched behavioral competencies has proven to be better than creating them from scratch. A method that has helped several organizations is to segment the company based on roles (VP, Manager, Supervisor, staff, etc.) and select those competencies that are most critical for success in each role. This approach can also be used for job families (engineers) that are highly populated within the company. Doing this for those unique one-off job titles often results in nearly identical competencies for the larger groupings/roles. Once identified and approved you will then be able to weave them into hiring and staffing, performance management, hi-potential assessments as well as individual development. I typically align the proficiency levels with the performance appraisal 'ratings' so there is consistency across all competency based tools.

Just to add to Richard and Leanne's helpful responses, another role for the competency framework is to drive the behaviors that deliver your organization's values - this gives you the important qualitative yet objective language that is needed.

There is not a lot of evidence that behavioural competencies predict superior performance - and plenty of evidence that job specific knowledge and skill does.

Therefore especially for hi tech, engineering and healthcare fields my recommendation would be to identify and ask subject matter experts to come up with the competency requirements.

This should be in the form of technical competency headings, subheadings and indicators.

3 or 4 Proficiency levels can be used. I have seen up to 10 used in power generation, which I would say is excessive. The key thing is that the distinction between levels is meaningful and useful. This may also vary by functional area. For any particular competency heading you may have a foundation level, an advanced level and an expert level for example. You can name the levels as you prefer, but there should be a definition - for example you may decide an expert is able to demonstrate mastery of complex tasks in the indicator list, identify new competency requirements, design and conduct assessments and provide coaching and mentoring to develop the team.

The competencies should describe what knowledge people should have and what they should be able to do in order to deliver the outcomes required in their job role. A technical competency set is defined for an area/section/team and required levels identified by role. This enables you to map out career pathways.

Number of competencies - For technical competencies it doesn't matter how many there are - and in fact there are likely to be many since they are task based. The key thing is to have a system that can manage them.

For core and leadership competencies - which are broadly defined and more an indicator of expectation than a valid measurement indicator I would limit to nor more than 6 of each.